Twitter ratings on TV don’t match reality

What’s buzzing on social media isn’t necessarily indicative of what’s actually being watched, but that’s not stopping Nielsen from modernizing their ratings around social media.

CBS Corp.’s “The Big Bang Theory” and “NCIS” are among the most-watched shows on television, with upward of 20 million viewers each. But in Nielsen’s new ranking of programs with the greatest reach on Twitter, they aren’t even in the top 10.

The Nielsen data, which will be published for the first time Monday, provides new details on the number of tweets about TV shows and the size of the audience that sees them. It highlights that the programs that generate the most Twitter activity often aren’t the ones with the highest viewership.